The city of Jackson is seeking more than $225 million in a lawsuit against Siemens the company hired to overhaul the city’s water billing system.
But how much could this lawsuit cost— the taxpayers?
Jackson hired the company for $90 million in 2012 to fix its water billing systems.
“The city of Jackson said it was misled and Siemens grossly underperformed,” said Matt Steffey Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law.
Steffey maintains Siemens will argue it went above and beyond to try to work with a system that was a problem from the beginning
If this isn’t settled out of court this process could take months if not years.
“It is entirely possible that legal fees and expert fees and other cost for each side could go into the high 6 or even 7 figure sums,” said Steffey.
There’s no word at this time if the two sides are looking at a settlement, but the case ranks among the more difficult cases for trial.
“It’s way more complicated than the average lawsuit between two people or two businesses,” Steffey said. “It’s not as complicated as litigating the break up of AT&T or a nuclear power plant but it’s quite complicated which complicated means lengthy and expensive.”
It’s not just the cost of the lawyers, experts are expected to increase the cost of the lawsuit.
WJTV 12 contacted the city of Jackson for the cost of Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC, the law firm representing the city of Jackson in litigation.